TheDailyBeast: Couples We Can Still Believe In

Elton John and David Furnish

Five years after Elton John came out, he met then-advertising executive David Furnish on Oct. 30, 1993, at a dinner party he was hosting. The musician reportedly asked Furnish for his phone number, and the two had a private dinner the following night, on Halloween. But their relationship was no trick or treat. John and his partner have had their trials and tribulations, but eventually they made their union official at a Dec. 21, 2005, ceremony at the Guidhall, Windsor, followed by a lavish affair at their Berkshire mansion. "Meeting David has been the greatest thing to happen to me," John told The Daily Mirror of his Rocket Man. "Yes, we spend a lot of time apart and it’s hard, but we make it work. We phone each other five or six times a day and we still send each other a card from wherever we are." Correspondence certainly helps the couple of 16 years maintain their romance, but so do flowers. Says John: "David’s best advice to me all the time is: ‘Just stop and smell the roses.’ But I don’t stop. I’m not one for looking back, I’m one for looking forward."

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Is nothing sacred anymore? After seven years of marriage, Heidi Klum and Seal (who were once on this list, as were Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore) are splitting up. But an endangered group still exists: from Jeff Bridges and Susan Geston to Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols, here are some pairs we still believe in (and hope we didn't jinx).

Jeff and Susan Bridges met on a ranch in Montana in 1974. He was there acting in a comedy Western called "Rancho Deluxe." She was a waitress and aspiring photographer. He fell in love at first sight, but she declined his request for a date. Bridges came back after filming wrapped, "kidnapped" Susan for a trip to Canada. The two married in 1977 and have been together ever since. "I'm so in love with her," he said recently. "The relationship just keeps getting better and more intimate and sexier and all that stuff. You don't want to mess around with that."

Proving that marriage is not the only way to show commitment, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have remained Hollywood’s golden couple for 26 years. The two met while filming "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band" in 1968, but sparks flew when they were reintroduced on the set of "Swing Shift" 15 years later, in 1983. Their union produced ’80s classic "Overboard" in 1987 and one child, son Wyatt Russell, now 23. The shockingly stable twosome has melded families with their children from previous marriages—Hawn’s Kate and Oliver Hudson and Russell’s son Boston. Though their relationship seems unflappable, Hawn’s red-carpet gowns are the only ones we’ll likely see her in. "There’s something about marriage I don’t like," the twice-divorced star told People. "The idea that Kurt gets to be my boyfriend is a sexy choice and incredibly fascinating."

At first, Michelle Robinson was just an assigned mentor to first-year Harvard Law student and summer associate Barack Obama at Chicago law firm Sidley and Austin, in 1989. Initially, the first lady said she was reluctant to date Obama, declining his advances not only because it could have been unprofessional, but also because, she thought, "any black guy who spent his formative years on an island had to be a little nerdy, a little strange," according to The Washington Post. Eventually, Michelle gave in and spent a day with the president at the Art Institute, strolling down Michigan Avenue and catching a screening of Spike Lee’s "Do the Right Thing." "He was definitely putting on the charm," Michelle told The Chicago Sun-Times. "It worked. He swept me off my feet." Two years later, over dinner at Chicago’s extravagant Gordon’s restaurant, in the middle of her lecture about taking their relationship seriously, a small ring box appeared on her dessert plate. That was serious enough for Michelle, who married Barack a year later. Fifteen years and two daughters later, the couple manages to maintain their relationship, even with the stresses of the world weighing them down… literally. While Michelle says being friends first is what laid their strong foundation, for President Obama, it’s the butterflies. "Sometimes, when we’re lying together," he told MSNBC, "I look at her and I feel dizzy."

Rita Wilson first met future husband Tom Hanks on the set of his breakthrough role on "Bosom Buddies" in 1981, when she guest-starred as Peter Scolari’s Satan-worshipping girlfriend. But seeing Hanks dressed in drag wasn’t exactly a dealmaker for Wilson, who later developed romantic feelings for the actor while working on "Volunteers" in 1985. Three years later, they wed, and their careers took off both separately and together. Hanks and Wilson played siblings in "Sleepless in Seattle" in 1993 and unrelated characters in 1996’s "That Thing You Do." They’ve also co-produced several films together, including "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Mamma Mia." Besides making movies, the two also have produced two sons, Chester and Truman, and yet they still don’t seem sick of each other after 21 years of marriage. "We always make each other laugh, have honest communication, and I never take him for granted," Wilson told Fox News earlier this year.

Five years after Elton John came out, he met then-advertising executive David Furnish on Oct. 30, 1993, at a dinner party he was hosting. The musician reportedly asked Furnish for his phone number, and the two had a private dinner the following night, on Halloween. But their relationship was no trick or treat. John and his partner have had their trials and tribulations, but eventually they made their union official at a Dec. 21, 2005, ceremony at the Guidhall, Windsor, followed by a lavish affair at their Berkshire mansion. "Meeting David has been the greatest thing to happen to me," John told The Daily Mirror of his Rocket Man. "Yes, we spend a lot of time apart and it’s hard, but we make it work. We phone each other five or six times a day and we still send each other a card from wherever we are." Correspondence certainly helps the couple of 16 years maintain their romance, but so do flowers. Says John: "David’s best advice to me all the time is: ‘Just stop and smell the roses.’ But I don’t stop. I’m not one for looking back, I’m one for looking forward."

Colin and Alma Powell’s quickie wedding has since turned into one of the strongest political marriages in an age when government infidelity runs rampant. The former secretary of State was set up with Alma Johnson in November 1961 in Boston. It was the first blind date for both Colin and Alma, and would be their last. Colin called the next day to ask his future wife out on a second date, writing in his 1995 book, "My American Journey," that Alma "had everything I would ever want in a wife." "Alma must have loved me because I was not a romantic suitor," he wrote in his autobiography. "I did not even buy her an engagement ring… She was wise enough to know that the trappings tell little about success in marriage. ‘Don’t worry about the ring,’ she told me. ‘You can make it up to me later.’ Which I eventually did, with a fairly nice rock." Two weeks after his ring-less proposal, the pair married at the First Congregational Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Aug. 25, 1962, or as Powell called it, "my luckiest day." The couple has since had three children and Alma has been a devout wife and mother, she told Ebony it wasn't always an easy feat throughout their 47-year marriage: "You have to be a very strong person yourself. You have to have a certain sense of adventure and an awful lot of patience." But her husband’s temperament has helped. "Without exception, Colin is the calmest person I know. He gives me calm."

Rarely does the mistress become the wife, but in a love story that seemed to have been written for British tabloids, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have beaten the odds and become a power couple all their own. The two met at a polo match in 1970, and though Charles saw Bowles as his future wife, royal courtiers reportedly did not see her as a suitable companion for the future king. Three years later, she married Andrew Parker Bowles and the prince wed Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. But Charles and Camilla reportedly renewed their romance in the ’80s. As the affair became public knowledge a decade later, Camillagate exploded on the pages of the British papers, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana split soon afterward. The royals and public shunned the other woman, to whom Diana reportedly referred as "the Rottweiler." But in 2005, the prince and Parker Bowles were legally bound in a civil ceremony. Having weathered media firestorms, numerous scandals, and failed marriages during their 40 years on and off, Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales, it seems, will always be each other’s "the one."

Diane Sawyer had director Mike Nichols on her wish list before they even met. But love wasn’t what she was wishing for; she merely wanted "60 Minutes" of his time as a profile subject for the CBS program, for which she was a correspondent. When they met in an airport waiting room in Paris in 1986, however, things changed. A lunch arranged to discuss business turned into a heated romance, and the two have been together since (nearing 23 years). "He’s generous and adventurous and a little wild and utterly kind. It’s that combination of something you’re completely sure of and something dangerous and interesting. And he’s also the funniest man on the face of the earth," Sawyer told People of her husband. Nichols shares her sentiments, reportedly saying of Sawyer, "When I first met my wife, I thought nobody can be that perfect. But she is." Fourth time seems to be the charm for the television legend.